Over the weekend, HBO premiered Game Change, a movie based on the book of the same name by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, which begins in 2008 at the decision to have Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running-mate, and ends on election day. Did you watch it? What did you think? I’ll tell you what I thought, and then you tell me what you thought. I thought it was mostly sad and unnecessary. The story of choosing a woman who didn’t know anything about anything to be second in line for President of America, and the outcome and fallout of that decision, is absolutely an interesting narrative. No doubt. I loved that story when it happened three years ago. But the problem with Game Change, and Julianne Moore doing her best Sarah Palin impression, is that the back-story served to humanize Sarah Palin so much that, as a viewer, I thought, “Why are you still picking on this poor, dumb mother of five whose life got destroyed?”

For those of you who did not watch it, the story arc was this: Sarah Palin is chosen as John McCain’s running-mate and she is excited; Sarah Palin does poorly in interviews because she doesn’t know anything and the world is against her and her family is being attacked and she is depressed and regrets her decision to run and wants to go back to Alaska; Sarah Palin begins to do better in interviews and debates after being given talking points to memorize and becomes a superstar and basically says F Alaska and F everybody else because she’s the star now. By the end she’s like, “John McCain’s a virgin. Who can’t. Drive”, basically. And it wouldn’t be a bad movie if it were fictional, or if Sarah Palin still seemed like something we should be concerned about.

But the problem is that now, in 2012, we understand that Sarah Palin, retired governor of Alaska and star of a reality show that no one watched, is a joke. Although there were rumors that she would throw her fancy hat into the 2012 presidential race ring, she did not, and even if she did — is there anyone out there who really still sees her as a legitimate threat? Certainly there will be egg on my face if she comes back and destroys America in 2016, but by now that doesn’t seem like it should be a real concern. So what we’re left with is the story of a woman who didn’t ask to be Vice President, and who was too stupid to know how stupid she was, being torn apart by men who were using her to grab votes, interspersed with re-shot footage of (very entertaining) interviews we’ve all already seen.

The story of how those in charge of John McCain’s campaign attempted to coverup her incompetence was interesting, but it was very hard to discern what was based on reality and what was just an amped-up Hollywood version of the maybe-truth. Like when you read a story by Dave Sedaris and you think, “Well, the dialogue is what is making this story from Dave Sedaris’s childhood funny, but how could he possibly remember the dialogue from his childhood?” Not very convincing. It’s fine when Dave Sedaris does it because you’re not reading his stories to get the FACTS, necessarily, but when all a movie has to offer is the “behind the scenes facts” of a story we all know so much about already, and then those “behind the scenes facts” are more like “behind the scenes ‘facts'” with “facts” in HEAVY quotations, you have to think, like, what’s even the point of it all? It all seemed like a weird parody of what we already had to assume was happening anyway, and I’m not sure who asked for that parody or why.

SPOILER ALERT, but the movie ended with John McCain’s resignation speech, and his campaign advisors watching from the crowd. They’re reflecting on the mess that was Sarah Palin, when one remarks to the other that at least everyone will forget about her in two weeks, just as the crowd begins an overwhelming “SARAH! SARAH! SARAH!” chant. It ends on a scary “we’ve created a monster” vibe, which is actually a VERY GOOD vibe to end on, and I really liked it, except for how we live in 2012 like I already stated and actually nobody cares about that monster anymore? Again, it would have been better if it were fictional. We could have been left to imagine this woman rising in the ranks again and destroying the world, and it would have been the faults of these people who gave her her completely undeserved momentum because of their own desire to win. It also would have been better if it ended with something that seemed to warn about the nature of political figures as celebrities in general. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttt, it isn’t fictional, and that’s not what happened, and it was all very specific to Sarah Palin. So, again — who cares?

The movie did a very good job of showing how Sarah Palin was manipulated, and how dumb she was, and how she would have been perfectly fine to be left alone in Alaska. And it did a very good job of making me feel bad for Sarah Palin because people are still making movies about how dumb she is, even though she is no longer a threat to those people. And that’s it? I don’t know. It was fun to watch those interviews she gave again? It was fun to relive the election of Barack Obama? I do know that Sarah Palin is, for now, still a public figure, and that what she says on Fox talk shows DOES influence people, but those people are not going to be the people watching and believing and having their opinions changed by this movie. If those people happen to see this movie, I would bet that they will only feel sympathetic for Palin and their distrust of the “liberal media” will only increase. Soooo. Why make this movie?

I have to skip this one. I had enough of her 4 years ago and she’s still in the news too much. I hear there is one scene where she cries, but hopefully someone will just make a gif so I don’t even have to watch a youtube clip.

Because no one wants to watch a movie about the first black president and how he works really hard yet people still shit all over him, so much so that he questions if he ever really wanted to be president in the first place? I guess?

I despise Sarah Palin, but I don’t think “stupid” is the right word to describe her. It’s true she’s not interested in knowing factual information and has a surprising lack of knowledge of things one would expect her to know as a U.S. Governor, she seemed to have learned what she needed to know to be governor of Alaska, which is the job she actually wanted.

If it’s true that she’s the person who coined the term “death panels” and also turned Obama’s description of people in rural towns as “clinging to their guns and Jesus”, both which had huge political impact, then she definitely has a knack for certain things. Just sayin’.

I think it’s too soon to enjoy, but… it will stand as a record of what is was like when people watch it ten years from now on their… holodecks? Like, it’s too familiar now, but it’s good that it was made so close to the actual events, so it can retain a kind of authenticity. For the holodecks.

I feel like I’m spending too much time during this election cycle wincing at candidate comments to want to spend any time at all reliving all my wincing from four years ago. Especially because that was a LOT of wincing.

hey guys! long time lurker, first time commentator! excitement! well, for me anyway.

i read the book game change and it was probably one of the best books i’ve read in a long time. but they used the most boring part of the entire book to make this movie. seriously, all of the crazy obama/clinton drama was WAY more awesome and would have been a very compelling movie, illustrating a lot of stuff that wasn’t really in the news the way mccain/palin were. i gave up on this movie about 30 minutes in, after i realized it was basically a gussied up version of the 2008 news cycle.

Even though I’m Canadian I still have a strong interest in American Politics mostly because of the stakes and drama involved (although Canadian politics is starting to get interesting; google Pierre Poutine). I read the movie as more of digression of what has happened to half of the political spectrum since 2008. Sarah Palin was the test case for how empty headed know-nothings with focus group tested platitudes could have a real chance of being in control of nuclear arsenal by focusing fear and hatred at the “non-real America”.

Obviously, that’s nothing new to point out though(abortions for some, miniature american flags for others).

Most Viewed

The Doors are part of a very specific category of classic-rock artists: the gateway artists. The bands that — assuming you weren’t around in the ’60s — are amongst the first names you explore when you start digging into pop music’s past. Though keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore were all… More »

Last night, U2 played the seventh night of an eight-night stand at Madison Square Garden. (Our own young classic rocker Ryan Leas reviewed one of those shows earlier in the week.) And at last night’s show, the band introduced a few special local guests. There was New York royalty Paul Simon, who came out to… More »

After reportedly showing up half an hour late, rapper Travi$ Scott got his Lollapalooza set shut down after only 5 minutes by encouraging fans to jump the security barrier and rush the stage. Festival organizers deemed the resulting chaos to be unsafe and shut the whole thing down, with security forcibly removing Scott from the… More »

Eminem is a pretty fit dude — for a while, he was even attached to star in Antoine Fuqua’s new boxing movie Southpaw. So how does Eminem stay a pretty fit dude? By working out compulsively. And in a new article on Men’s Journal, the rapper details his compulsive exercise regimen. “In the early days,”… More »

Morrissey often uses his True To You website to write about cases of what he considers to be societal injustice, as he did in the recent post blasting the killer of Cecil the lion. But as Pitchfork points out, Morrissey’s latest post for the site details a much more personal violation. Morrissey writes that, a… More »

Lollapalooza takes place this weekend in Chicago, and most of the sets from the festival will be livestreaming via Red Bull TV in case you can’t (or don’t want to) leave the comfort of your own home. Some of the acts performing this weekend include Paul McCartney (with a highlights-only set streaming), Metallica, the Weeknd,… More »

Superproducer Mark Ronson stopped by for a live in-studio session at Australian radio station Triple J today. As usual, he assembled a crack team of musicians to back him up, including Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Kirin J. Callinan on guitar. The band performed a great psyched-out cover of Queens Of The Stone Age’s “I… More »

Drake has already released not one but two diss tracks in response to Meek Mill’s ghostwriting allegations. After Funkmaster Flex promised a Meek response track Monday night on Hot 97 and failed to deliver, people were pissed, and everyone began to wonder if this mega-beef were already over. But no — the soap opera continues! More »